AT&T, LTE and the Future of 4G Technology
AT&T Mobility recently announced it hopes to launch commercial LTE service by mid-2011 and cover between 70 million and 75 million POPS by the end of next year.
AT&T has been a little slow with this launch considering Sprint and Clear have already been serving 52 markets with 4G WiMAX. Even Verizon's 4G LTE will launch this year in November. Why has AT&T been so slow? Corporate spokespersons say that rather than launching their own 4G network, such as their competitors, they have focused on upgrading their HSPA 3G network to allow for downloads up to 7.2Mbps. That also state that now that this is done, they are working on pulling together a 4G network and will be conducting tests in Baltimore, MD and Dallas, TX.
AT&T spokespersons also stated that they were waiting on the 4G market to become more mature before moving forward with a full-scale deployment. In that, the company plans to spend $700 million in capital expenditures on LTE this year and go beyond that in 2011.
So what is this LTE? It stands for Long Term Evolution and it is a 4th generation or 4G mobile broadband standard. LTE is aimed to succeed 3G technologies and GSM/UMTS. Like WiMAX, this technology will provide broadband services wirelessly (like EVDO), but instead of transmitting signals via microwaves, LTE utilizes a radio platform. You will need a LTE modem to access the network, which can be in USB format, ExpressCard, PCMCIA, or embedded in a laptop; it will also likely be featured as the internet connection on PDAs and phones.
The network is known to be super-fast and is promising to have peak download rates of up to100Mbps, which will provide an alternative to DSL, cable, satellite, and dial-up internet. This may not mean anything to anybody - unless you are in a rural area and aren‘t currently serviced by a high-speed network. The technology is to also free people from the burden of having to find a WiFi hotspot when they are on the road. As long as one has an LTE modem, they can connect to the internet anywhere in the service provider's coverage area.
The main advantages with LTE are high throughput, low latency, plug and play, FDD and TDD in the same platform, an improved end-user experience and a simple architecture resulting in low operating costs. LTE will also support seamless passing to cell towers with older network technology such as GSM, cdmaOne, UMTS, and CDMA2000. The next step for LTE evolution is LTE Advanced and is currently being standardized in 3GPP Release 10.
With LTE technology moving forward comes the inclusion of vendors to join the procession. In March of this year, Qualcomm stated that it was integrating LTE into their laptops.
According to Juniper Research in a report "4G LTE Hard Opportunities", they state "the faster data rates and reduced latency of 4G LTE make it a network well-suited to new and upgraded devices such as netbooks, tablets, digital cameras and gaming systems." Juniper also predicts LTE netbooks and tablets will outstrip LTE laptop shipments, especially in the consumer market.
"Juniper's view is that mobile operators will be keen to embed a wide variety of devices with broadband wireless connectivity, because they see this as a route to stave off ARPU (average revenue per user) declines: Our forecasts show that there will be roughly as many LTE netbooks and tablets combined as laptops by 2015."
However, a faster network does not necessarily mean a better user experience. Juniper points out that issues including availability and customer support for connected devices as well as demand for new business models that will replace existing data plans must be addressed and overcome before the industry can truly take advantage of the next-generation network.
AT&T has been a little slow with this launch considering Sprint and Clear have already been serving 52 markets with 4G WiMAX. Even Verizon's 4G LTE will launch this year in November. Why has AT&T been so slow? Corporate spokespersons say that rather than launching their own 4G network, such as their competitors, they have focused on upgrading their HSPA 3G network to allow for downloads up to 7.2Mbps. That also state that now that this is done, they are working on pulling together a 4G network and will be conducting tests in Baltimore, MD and Dallas, TX.
AT&T spokespersons also stated that they were waiting on the 4G market to become more mature before moving forward with a full-scale deployment. In that, the company plans to spend $700 million in capital expenditures on LTE this year and go beyond that in 2011.
So what is this LTE? It stands for Long Term Evolution and it is a 4th generation or 4G mobile broadband standard. LTE is aimed to succeed 3G technologies and GSM/UMTS. Like WiMAX, this technology will provide broadband services wirelessly (like EVDO), but instead of transmitting signals via microwaves, LTE utilizes a radio platform. You will need a LTE modem to access the network, which can be in USB format, ExpressCard, PCMCIA, or embedded in a laptop; it will also likely be featured as the internet connection on PDAs and phones.
The network is known to be super-fast and is promising to have peak download rates of up to100Mbps, which will provide an alternative to DSL, cable, satellite, and dial-up internet. This may not mean anything to anybody - unless you are in a rural area and aren‘t currently serviced by a high-speed network. The technology is to also free people from the burden of having to find a WiFi hotspot when they are on the road. As long as one has an LTE modem, they can connect to the internet anywhere in the service provider's coverage area.
The main advantages with LTE are high throughput, low latency, plug and play, FDD and TDD in the same platform, an improved end-user experience and a simple architecture resulting in low operating costs. LTE will also support seamless passing to cell towers with older network technology such as GSM, cdmaOne, UMTS, and CDMA2000. The next step for LTE evolution is LTE Advanced and is currently being standardized in 3GPP Release 10.
With LTE technology moving forward comes the inclusion of vendors to join the procession. In March of this year, Qualcomm stated that it was integrating LTE into their laptops.
According to Juniper Research in a report "4G LTE Hard Opportunities", they state "the faster data rates and reduced latency of 4G LTE make it a network well-suited to new and upgraded devices such as netbooks, tablets, digital cameras and gaming systems." Juniper also predicts LTE netbooks and tablets will outstrip LTE laptop shipments, especially in the consumer market.
"Juniper's view is that mobile operators will be keen to embed a wide variety of devices with broadband wireless connectivity, because they see this as a route to stave off ARPU (average revenue per user) declines: Our forecasts show that there will be roughly as many LTE netbooks and tablets combined as laptops by 2015."
However, a faster network does not necessarily mean a better user experience. Juniper points out that issues including availability and customer support for connected devices as well as demand for new business models that will replace existing data plans must be addressed and overcome before the industry can truly take advantage of the next-generation network.
